'Odd' defined in eye of the beholder

August 07, 2008

Every family has them - traditional home remedies. Cures for injuries and illnesses which, if observed by an outsider, might appear bizarre. Mustard plasters placed upon the chest of a child with a bad cold, for example. I never had a mustard plaster. Sounds stinky. But being an active child, I did have my share of poultices. I can't count the times I'd come crying into the house with a sliver buried so deeply in my foot or hand that there was no way to dig it out. My mother would clean the wound and just before bed place a poultice made up of bread and milk over the sliver and wrap it snugly with gauze. Never failed. The next morning the sliver was gone. The drying poultice was said to have drawn the sliver out. I recall one summer being about 7 years old and sprouting one of the ugliest warts right on my index finger. Not only did I not want to go to school in the fall and have to face the ridicule of my fellow classmates, but the wart was also right on the spot where I held my No. 2 pencil. When I tearfully confessed my concerns to my mother, (yup, I was a whiny kid) she sent me to the neighbor lady, an elderly woman who, my mother said, had many ancient healing skills. The woman told me to take a bit of rag, go off by myself where no one would see me and rub the cloth gently over the wart. Then I was to bury the rag in the dirt and not walk by the spot until the wart had disappeared. By the time I headed off to school on the first day of class, the wart was completely gone. Of course most of these cures are psychological. If we believe in something hard enough, our body follows the directions our mind gives it. Thus the placebo effect. American mothers have used it for years when they kiss away the pain of a boo-boo. Some cultures sacrifice small animals in an attempt to ward off bad spirits or cure a sick family member. I don't believe at all in bad spirits. Except that not only do I have a wind chime tinkling on my front porch, I also have a dream catcher in my bedroom window. And I don't have any bad spirits. I often try to step outside my own culture and try to imagine what other people visiting our country think of us. Do we appear as odd to them as they do to us when we visit their country? But it's not just to foreigners who might find us odd. I was talking with a young man who was visiting here from Chicago. He was astonished that people had such large collections of guns that serve no other purpose than to shoot animals. Something that is as natural to South Dakotans as breathing was a source of confusion for the young man. For me, humor is the best way to deal with things I find to be odd or confusing. For instance, I wonder what someone from England would think if they were invited to a dinner in America and told "Bring a dish to pass." Could you imagine someone from China or Italy reading an ad in the paper for a Flea Market? Gretchen Mayer, Mansfield, is executive director of the Aberdeen Area Diversity Committee. Her column appears occasionally on the Viewpoints Page. Write to her at the American News, P.O. Box 4430, Aberdeen, S.D., 57402, or e-mail americannews@aberdeennews.com.